Would you quit it, already! I’m already sharp as a tack.” These tiny shouts rang out mere seconds later.
“I simply can’t believe it,” Vera said, making no attempt to mask the admiration in her voice or in her eyes.
Just a few minutes earlier she’d watched with her own eyes as D put his left hand to the boy’s chest, and the child’s temperature had dropped rapidly, his breathing had returned to normal, and his perspiring had ceased. There were things from the days when the Nobility’s sorcery and witchcraft held sway that even now the strictest of doctors wouldn’t acknowledge. However, the phenomenon she’d just witnessed was impossible from the standpoint of physics—in other words, it could be called a miracle.
“Dhampirs can do things like that?”
D met the query from the stunned doctor with silence. Perhaps he meant that seeing was believing.
Lilia and Dust had already gone to bed. Only the two of them remained in the refuge’s living room.
“Even at my age, I still don’t know much about the Nobility,” said Vera, slumping back against the sofa wearily. Slapping the polished ebony armrest with her palm, she continued, “It all looks so real—this sofa, the table, and you.” From between chapped lips that hadn’t been adorned with lipstick for a long time, a thin breath escaped. “I mean, this refuge has ten more rooms to it! But with one press of a switch, it folds up smaller than an umbrella. Honestly, instead of hating the Nobility for their deeds, I’m more impressed by this—oh, do you mind if I smoke?”
Taking a crinkled paper pack from the chest pocket of her coat, she pulled a cigarette out before putting the rest away. She rubbed the end of the cigarette against the armrest, and it sparked to life.
“You a heavy smoker?”
Vera coughed furiously. The voice had been hoarse. Striking her chest a few times to get her breathing back under control, she said, “You’re quite the ventriloquist, aren’t you? But I can’t say I care for your tastes.”
D squeezed his left hand into a tight fist. The low voice was cut off.
“I went to college in the western Frontier, where I studied medicine and physics. As a result, I believe I know a little something about the scientific level of what the Nobles left behind and the substance of their civilization. The world may be guided by the will of the living, but it’s science that supports those efforts. Even hundreds of thousands of years from now, human beings probably won’t have reached the same level as the Nobility. Yet those same Nobles are now in their sunset. Are civilization and science such fleeting things? No, even with eternal life, they can’t stop the end of the world. What, then, is the meaning of life?”
“What do you think?” D inquired softly. Vera’s form was reflected in his deep, dark eyes.
The doctor hesitated a bit, taking a long drag of her cigarette, then slowly exhaling it. The smoke swelled like a mushroom, then quickly faded. Gazing at D, Vera said, “The meaning of life is . . . dying.”
Nothing from the Hunter.
“Or perhaps it would be better to say that being limited gives life purpose. It means people have to find a purpose for their own life. Even if they don’t always find one.”
“Everything finite comes to an end someday,” said D. A faint look of desolation flitted across his handsome visage. “In that respect, there’s no difference between humans and Nobles.”
“No, there’s a fundamental difference. Human beings can create life. For all their ageless immortality, the Nobility can’t do that. All they can do is drain humans of their blood and add them to their ranks. But they’re—”
“That, too, is a new life.”
Vera fell silent. She’d encountered similar situations before. That experience allowed her to choose the best response in a heartbeat.
III
“I don’t really understand what you’re saying.”
In the span of that one remark, the doctor’s
“I simply can’t believe it,” Vera said, making no attempt to mask the admiration in her voice or in her eyes.
Just a few minutes earlier she’d watched with her own eyes as D put his left hand to the boy’s chest, and the child’s temperature had dropped rapidly, his breathing had returned to normal, and his perspiring had ceased. There were things from the days when the Nobility’s sorcery and witchcraft held sway that even now the strictest of doctors wouldn’t acknowledge. However, the phenomenon she’d just witnessed was impossible from the standpoint of physics—in other words, it could be called a miracle.
“Dhampirs can do things like that?”
D met the query from the stunned doctor with silence. Perhaps he meant that seeing was believing.
Lilia and Dust had already gone to bed. Only the two of them remained in the refuge’s living room.
“Even at my age, I still don’t know much about the Nobility,” said Vera, slumping back against the sofa wearily. Slapping the polished ebony armrest with her palm, she continued, “It all looks so real—this sofa, the table, and you.” From between chapped lips that hadn’t been adorned with lipstick for a long time, a thin breath escaped. “I mean, this refuge has ten more rooms to it! But with one press of a switch, it folds up smaller than an umbrella. Honestly, instead of hating the Nobility for their deeds, I’m more impressed by this—oh, do you mind if I smoke?”
Taking a crinkled paper pack from the chest pocket of her coat, she pulled a cigarette out before putting the rest away. She rubbed the end of the cigarette against the armrest, and it sparked to life.
“You a heavy smoker?”
Vera coughed furiously. The voice had been hoarse. Striking her chest a few times to get her breathing back under control, she said, “You’re quite the ventriloquist, aren’t you? But I can’t say I care for your tastes.”
D squeezed his left hand into a tight fist. The low voice was cut off.
“I went to college in the western Frontier, where I studied medicine and physics. As a result, I believe I know a little something about the scientific level of what the Nobles left behind and the substance of their civilization. The world may be guided by the will of the living, but it’s science that supports those efforts. Even hundreds of thousands of years from now, human beings probably won’t have reached the same level as the Nobility. Yet those same Nobles are now in their sunset. Are civilization and science such fleeting things? No, even with eternal life, they can’t stop the end of the world. What, then, is the meaning of life?”
“What do you think?” D inquired softly. Vera’s form was reflected in his deep, dark eyes.
The doctor hesitated a bit, taking a long drag of her cigarette, then slowly exhaling it. The smoke swelled like a mushroom, then quickly faded. Gazing at D, Vera said, “The meaning of life is . . . dying.”
Nothing from the Hunter.
“Or perhaps it would be better to say that being limited gives life purpose. It means people have to find a purpose for their own life. Even if they don’t always find one.”
“Everything finite comes to an end someday,” said D. A faint look of desolation flitted across his handsome visage. “In that respect, there’s no difference between humans and Nobles.”
“No, there’s a fundamental difference. Human beings can create life. For all their ageless immortality, the Nobility can’t do that. All they can do is drain humans of their blood and add them to their ranks. But they’re—”
“That, too, is a new life.”
Vera fell silent. She’d encountered similar situations before. That experience allowed her to choose the best response in a heartbeat.
III
“I don’t really understand what you’re saying.”
In the span of that one remark, the doctor’s
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